Spurious
by Etto.ano
Summary: Genocide. Family. Identity. Love. Hate. Confusion. Read to find out what this convoluted story will yield! Oh the angst! Oh the bittersweet memories! InuKag MirSan


Chapter 1

The sun was shining through the grey window, casting a shy light across the few stacks of order forms that laid there fresh from the delivery man. A little boy, around the age of six, gained an immense amount of curiosity upon seeing the delivery occur. He noticed that the man wore a dark khaki uniform – shortsleeves and bermuda shorts for the hot July weather. A simple emblem was stitched to the shirt, but some of the threads were loosely hanging out, as if it had been affected by friction one too many times. That emblem…the boy had seen it before. Ah! He had seen it on the cars that seemed to endlessly patrol the streets. And on the security guards's uniforms, who rustled about on practically every block.

He briskly walked to the wooden chair that was situated invitingly in front of the desk. He climed on top of the chair and sat himself down properly, as he had seen his father do many times when working, whether it was way past closing time, or just when the shop would open up. The boy was dismayed to see that the papers looked mundane and boring. But there was one piece of paper that caught his eye. He saw the simple emblem again! Except, it was etched across the top of the paper with dense colors, instead of the worn out colors that he would usually see. The boy tried to decipher what the letter said, but no matter how hard he furrowed his tiny eyebrows, only a few words made sense to him. He put the paper down and realized that his hands made moist fingerprint marks on the white paper from clutching it so hard. He tried to flatten it out, but it didn't seem to solve the problem.

"What do you have there, Inuyasha?" came a voice from behind him.

Inuyasha turned his head around fast to meet the eyes of his father. "Um" he said, looking at the paper, and back at his father again. "I don't know. Can you help me read it?"

The father smiled meekly and grasped the paper from his son. As his eyes registered the text, an uncomfortable expression marked his face.

Inuyasha noticed this immediately and promptly asked, "What does it say?"

The father folded the paper in half cleanly, and then quarters. He held the paper in his hands as if contemplating something and then suddenly decided to pocket it. "It's nothing, I don't even understand it," the father said, resuming his previous smile.

Inuyasha looked puzzled for a moment, but didn't think twice about what happened. "Okay. What's new, Dad?"

"Oh, nothing much, just cleaning up some boxes in the storage room."

"Oh. All right. Where's mom?" he asked, looking around the store.

"She's at home today. She's gonna make your favorite food tonight," he said with a wide smile.

The boy smiled even wider. "Yay! Can't wait." He got of the chair and dug out a yo-yo from his pocket. He commenced the monotonous throwing and catching that he had mastered the week before.

After looking at Inuyasha's tedious pattern, the father knew he needed to direct his son's attention away from the yo-yo to something else. "Say, why don't you go play with the other kids on the street?"

"Why? I've got my yo-yo, Dad."

"I know, and you're great at it, but you should play with some other kids, too. Why don't you hang out with Kagome? She's right across the street in the clock store her parents own," he smiled hopefully, while pointing out the window.

"But Dad, she's a _girl_. I don't hang out with girls," he grimaced, but without stopping his yo-yo.

His father's eyes looked away from his son and he seemed to be thinking of a different world. "Well, son, you'll soon come to like girls." Inuyasha stopped his yo-yo. "Better start now. Believe me, you won't regret it" Inuyasha opened his mouth in a way that suggested he encountered something gruesome.

"Dad. I will _never_ like girls. Plus, I don't even know her. I only want to play with people I know, like you, Mom, and Miroku."

Before he could resist, the father grabbed the yo-yo out of his hands and started to push Inuyasha out of the store by his shoulders. Inuyasha was so surprised that he didn't even think to stop walking. When sunlight completely enveloped his body, he realized he was outside in the street.

"Now go talk to her. I want you guys to be friends by the time you come home."

"Dad! I want my yo-yo back!"

"Go!" And with that, the father walked back into the shop. Inuyasha could tell that the argument had ended and that he should probably get the whole Kagome thing over with, so he walked over to the clock store. The first thing he saw was a little girl the same age as he washing the window pane with a damp cloth, rubbing the same spot over and over again. Inuyasha was wondering why she was so insistant on polishing the same spot, so he asked her.

"Hi. Why are you doing that so many times?"

She turned around to reveal porcelein skin, a small, delicate nose, and round, doe eyes that almost looked like they were glistening with tears of joy. Inuyasha was struck. _She looks like…a doll_. Her eyebrows rose up, and an inquisitory look came in her eyes. "Huh?"

"Em, the window. Why are you rubbing it so hard?" He pointed to the spot she had been working on.

"Oh, it's because I want my papa's store to be perfect! So I told him I would clean the window so that all the people on the street could see all the beautiful clocks we have!" she said exuberantly while presenting the clocks within the shop with most open arms her tiny figure could muster.

Inuyasha glanced back at his shop's window. He quickly looked down and a light flush spread across his cheeks. It was evident that there were mountains of dust piled in the corners of the shop window in comparison to the sparkling glass that gleamed proudly from Kagome's work.

"Oh…nice," he said while subconciously reaching in his pocket for his yo-yo. His face fell when his hand grasped air. He kept his hand in his pocket to look like he meant for it to be there.

"Thank you! Oh and I'm Kagome. What's your name?"

"Inuyasha." he said warily. She reached her hand out in expectance and waited for Inuyasha to take hold of it, but he was taken aback.

"What..?" he said, stepping away.

Kagome's eye's flattened in dismay as she lowered her hand. "Isn't that what you do when you meet someone new? Something like, shaking hands?" she asked hopefully.

Inuyasha thought back to all the customers that held their hands out to his father back at the store, and immediately identified what she was talking about.

He struck out his hand in front of her quickly. "Sorry" he muttered while looking away.

He felt his hand being grasped by Kagome's and he felt his ears go warm. Too warm. In the process of dropping her hand, Kagome caught it and shook his hand once and let go.

"Nice to meet you! I have to get back to work now. Bu bye!" She flipped her hair with the eager movement of her head to refasten her attention on the window. She immediately commenced the polishing.

Inuyasha was perturbed to have ended their conversation, and if anything, he wanted to end it on his terms. "I think that spot is finished polishing" he stated slowly, with an air of indifferance.

Kagome turned around. "I don't think so. And anyway, I like polishing it." She turned back around.

Inuyasha was even more confused. "But it's…._done_," he said, sticking his head out in emphasis on the last word.

She faced him, and Inuyasha thought he was seeing a look his mother gave him sometimes. "To me it isn't. And plus, I think it's fun. Don't you have anything that you keep doing over and over again just 'cause it's fun?" She tilted her haid to one side.

Inuyasha thought, but not for long. "Yea…my yo-yo. But I don't have it with me. My dad took it away from me," he said while shuffling his feet in the dirt.

"I have one!" Kagome ran into the shop and came out a minute later with a pink and orange yo-yo. "I don't know how to play it or do anything on it though." Her mouth bunched to one side while looking at it.

Inuyasha's ears perked up. "I…can show you…?"

"REALLY? YAY! I'm so happy!"

Inuyasha's cheeks flushed a gentle pink, but he looked satisfied with the situation. He could show her something he's good at! He wasn't really sure why that was important…but he could show her!

Inuyasha's father saw the two playing and talking animatedly with the yo-yo and smiled to himself from his desk. "That's right Inuyasha, you need friends. In this world, you'll need all the trustworthy support you can get. Even if you don't want it." He put his hands inside his pocket and touched to folded piece of paper that felt even more moistened by the humidity of his own fingers.


End file.
